Protesters push for hike in minimum wage locally and in Boston

Organizers with the Coalition for Social Justice gathered a crew Tuesday to join the march as part of the Fight for 15.

Kevin P. O'Connor Herald News Staff Reporter @HNKPO

FALL RIVER — The passenger in the SUV watched the dozen people waving signs at passing cars on President Avenue. The drive-through line at McDonald’s wasn’t moving, so he rolled down his window and called out his question.

Jim Pimental turned to show the man the sign he waved. “Minimum Wage $15,” it read.

“We’re pushing to get the minimum wage to $15,” Pimental said.

The man laughed and gave a thumbs-up.

“I hear you,” he said. “That would be nice.”

One down, 6.7 million people left to go.

Organizers with the Coalition for Social Justice gathered a crew Tuesday to join the march, set for Tuesday night in Boston, as part of the Fight for 15, the campaign to raise the state minimum wage to $15 by 2018.

“Right now, the Fight for 15 is creating a lot of street heat and marches,” said Deb Fastino, executive director for the coalition. “We want to make sure legislators understand that we will keep coming back until people get a living wage.”

Massachusetts currently has a minimum wage of $9. Last year, the Legislature passed a bill that will raise it to $10 on July 1 and $11 on July 1, 2016.

That is a good start, but no place to stop, Fastino said.

“Anyone who is working full time for a large, profitable company shouldn’t have to fight to make ends meet,” Fastino said. “There is some legislation that has been filed this year to raise the minimum wage. There have been a decent number of sponsors.”

The legislation proposed by Raise Up Massachusetts, the group leading the minimum wage fight, would require companies with more than 200 employees to raise wages, in stages, to $15 an hour by 2018.

In Fall River, organizers waved signs in front of the McDonald’s on President Avenue while waiting for the bus to take them to a larger march planned for Boston.

“We are rallying at this McDonald’s and also in Boston to make sure companies like McDonald’s and Wal-Mart pay their employees living wages,” said Joseph DiMauro, an organizer with Coalition for Social Justice. “These companies can afford it.”

Organizers also contend taxpayers subsidize companies that pay low wages because people who work 40 hours a week for minimum wage need food stamps and rent assistance to get by.

An ad hoc group of public interest groups pushed last year for a hike in the minimum wage and a law requiring companies to offer paid sick time. The minimum wage hike passed the Legislature. The sick time question went before the voters in the fall of 2013 and passed with 60 percent of the vote.

That showing convinced legislators to take the organizers more seriously, Fastino said.

“They are listening, definitely,” she said. “We’ll see how it goes this year.”